Data Transfer

I was go to bed, but I decided to digest the data that I transferred out of The Robot. What happened is that I was trying to setup a home cloud and I couldn't get it done because my old Internet gateway didnt have the features necessary to do it. When I left, I forgot to transfer the files to my laptop. I also didnt back up the My Places on The Robot.  As a result, The Robot had some things and the Laptop had others.

Getting back to Home Port on the fly isn't exactly simple these days. And I've been miss missing the geotagged photos that I've already taken. Some of them display flier posting opportunities that I've collected in the previous 2 years.

I think I have them now? They'll be used to try and estimate how many fliers I'll need coming up on Adventurer's Project's marketing routes.

Cleaning, The Robot, Computer Resources and GPS Mapping

I'm cleaning today.  And I added things to Adventurer's Project's fundraising ideas.  But I've taken a break from my North Country Trail sub project.  There was a high pitched noise at very low volume coming from The Robot today.  When I opened the chassis side panel, it went away, so it must be barometric?  One of the 11 cooling fans is dead and I think that the high pitched noise came from the drive bay cooler fan?  My guess is that the front air intake holes are getting clogged with dust.  It's really overdue for a cleaning anyways. 

The one thing about owning a chassis with 11 fans is that at some point they all have to be cleaned.  I usually wrap one of my fingers in an anti static cloth and soak it in 90% rubbing alcohol.  Then in the rest for the rest of the computer I use both a compressed can of air and the vacuum cleaner tube and attachment to get some push and pull action on the dust there.


The chassis is made out of aluminum.  And often, I have things sitting on top of it.  But that's not good because it's built that way to help keep the system cool.  With things on top of it, it's very minor, but it's insulating the system and serving to be counterproductive to it's design purpose.

I've got a display in one of the front 5 - 1/4 inch bays that will one day tell me the CPU's temperature is.  Well, I haven't gotten to buying the thermal tape yet to install it's sensor to the CPU.  But the display goes in and out.  My guess is that it's running off of a Molex power connector that's been Y branched over and over again for the chassis fans.  As I've stated one of those fans is dead, but I think it's still trying to draw electricity, but even more now.  And that may be causing a sag on those wires, who's power is fixed.  I want to try plugging in another power cable into my modular power supply unit.  I'm not sure if it has another Molex connection available?  If not, the other way of powering hard disk, DVD drives and other equipment is with a SATA power connection.  I may have to convert one to Molex, but if any of this is possible, the front display could have it's own dedicated power cable?

Yesterday, putting the dispersed camping GPS I's and O's in on the North Country Trail - Minnesota was taxing my newer computer system pretty hard.  Under the circumstances, the hard drive light was on solid most of the time.  It must have been punishing my CPU?  This kind of work is graphical.  It's hard to describe when I when I talk to the employees at my local computer store.  I'd say that what I do is not as intensive as gaming, but probably up there with architectural design.

My Garmin eTrex 20 dedicated GPS runs for about $200.  If you took Buckeye, or North Country Trail's GIS track data and uploaded it to the devices storage, what you'd get is all of the "baby tracks" that it consists of.  And they have to be switched from one to another as frequently as every 29 feet.

In order to make it more manageable, I used Google My Maps to overtake the roads and some of the multi-use right-of-ways.  Unlike regular Google Maps, My Maps allows me to create, modify routes, save and export them.  They were done in the clockwise/ westbound direction because I have the most success merging tracks that way.  Overtaking the original GIS reduced the risk of errors on the merging because one track from My Maps usually eliminated 3 or more GIS tracks.

The merging stripped the written GIS data from both agencies, as a result, it's much easier on my system resources to display them.  NCTA's has things in there that might be of use, but for The Robot and laptop computer, I just open the original tracks up when I need that information.

NCTA Point Data Re-formatting Complete

I installed a new Bluetooth mouse and headset to my laptop. I didn't have Bluetooth until recently.

It's 8°F outside and the hygrometer on my desk is reading below 30%.  That's not good for my computer equipment. Right now, I'm wearing thermal boots with thick soles, hopefully I won't pass a static shock.

I had to unseat and re-seat my four port expansion USB 3.0 card today. I have a 7 port USB 3.0 hub connected to it and The Robot wasn't reading it. It does now. I double sticky taped the hub to the corner of my desk. The Robot isn't always convenient to get to.

While I disgarded points of interest, I completed the re-formatting and organizing of the NCTA's Point Data today.   What I can say about it is that from a logistical stand point for a thru hiker, the NCTA cateloged mostly campsites on governmental reservations. Most dispersed camping and commercial amenities are not present. The data also doesn't have much in the way of lodging.

But if I make up the difference, I think that the NCT will be the hike compliant. Stay tuned to these logs over the next couple months for that determination.

I'm currently working on a new form of storage.  The next step will be to alter the tracks. Mine started off from a copy downloaded years ago. In comparison with a newer download, I just need to make some "tweaks."

Next will probably be downloading and importing National Forest reservation polygons, along with campground, dispersed camp areas, trails and utility roads.

From there, it will be interesting to see what kind of GIS information that I get from the states?

Assembled & Awaiting Reprogramming

The Robot is assembled and most of the cables (except my laser printer) are hooked up.  It powers on, but the monitors don't come on and it's sending out beep codes.  I reseated the memory chips, but that didn't alleviate it.  I'll leave that for tomorrow when I hopefully reprogram the computer.

I don't remember the expansion Wi-Fi card that I purchased today.  It claims that it can reach 1300 megabits per second on the internal network.  That should be about top speed for Wireless N and I do swap large files over it from time to time.  For my mapping, I'm going to need it.  I don't know how big my map repository is?  I try to keep anything that isn't going to be needed immediately out of the "My Places" in Google Earth. Having everything there slows down the the applications start up.  So, I just keep certain things on the hard disk.  My My Places alone in KML format is currently about 146MB, which is probably on the large size for an amateur?

The Robot, Desk and Warrior Expeditions

I don't think that blue ring was residue that seeped out of the middle of the MSI motherboard, but some aftermarket plastic, or gel cushion that I may have put there because I lost a piece of mounting hardware that protected it when the screw inserted through it.  The stock piece would have also coated around the screw between the motherboard layers.  Since the screw itself was not shielded from the motherboard, that could be it's problem?  And then again, the MSI being a cheaper motherboard could be?

I assembled the new Gigabyte motherboard and most components.  The problem is that this board is short one PCI port.  And it was either inserting the SATA RAID controller, or the Wi-Fi card?  The PCI port is 32-bit and that's why it's slowly being phased out (apparently).  What the motherboard also has are PCI Express slots, which are the modern 64-bit and I'll have to get a replacement Wi-Fi card.  That earns me another trip to my local Micro Center store.

Meanwhile, the bent desk that I built a roller platform for is in disarray.  There's cables all over it waiting to be routed through it's new channels.  The Robot needs to get working so that I can route and layer them correctly.  It will probably depend on what enters and exits the channels and where?

I'm hoping to complete my Buckeye Trail project for the Warrior Expedition.  To recap, I'm GPS mapping all relevant VFW's, American Legion's and Amvets posts.  The idea is that with my knowledge of the trail, I could create a map informing Warrior Expeditions hikers where to seek support from.  I think that the hiker needs to know what areas are more conspicuous.  And I know these hikers.  They want every mile they can justify those days days... and I won't be able to deliver.  But if I can get them enough foresight, it could make things better for both hiker and veterans support.

Post Mortum - The Robot's MSI Motherboard

Corrosion found on one of the mounts for The Robot's pieces of mounting hardware for the CPU's cooling coil on the other side of its MSI motherboard. The coil is a Zalman RDH902B.  IT's copper and circular, so I refer to it as "the ferris wheel."

The corrosion appears to be a blue gel like substance. I did not put it there and I'm thinking that it has come from the center layer of the motherboard. Looks like it ozed out and molded to the round plastic nut. I had to grip it with a pair of pliers in order to turn it, so those scratch marks are caused by me.

There is no scorching on the CPU.

New Motherboard Acquired

When I replaced my MSI motherboard last time with the extended warranty, I didn't get another extended warranty at Micro Center.  That means that I had to purchase a new motherboard out of pocket.  A new Gigabyte H270-HD3 motherboard was acquired for The Robot.  So far, everything checks out as being compatible with it's existing hardware.  And The Robot's had a Gigabyte motherboard in the past and I know that company to be good.

If anything in the MSI motherboard went bad, it's probably from one of the mounts for the CPU coil cooler?  I lost a rubber ring that inserts into one of the mounting holes.  Since then, I tightened to the motherboard itself.  It wasn't overly torqued, but that could have been the problem.  The other problem is that at $54, could be that this MSI motherboard was cheap had dubious reliability to begin with?

Sea Foam & Blown Motherboard

I poured a 16oz can of Sea Form in the gas tank of my 2008 Chevy HHR LS prior to 193,437 miles on the odometer to clean the fuel injectors.  It's due for routine maintenance soon.  I have the oil and parts, except for the air filter.  I got them from my local Walmart and I always forget that they never carry it.

Earlier, I purchased the remaining 3 - 6ft USB 2.0 extension cables.  I got back to the desk and found an extra chassis power button and wires.  So, I inserted them around power header cables on The Robot's motherboard.  I can now confirm that the motherboard is bad.  It is a cheap board and this is the second BT150 PC Mate by MSI that I have replaced in this chassis, probably within the last 12 months.  Replacing the motherboard will probably mean that I have to reinstall the operating system and every application on it.  Those three will probably 10 man hours. to complete.

Power and USB Extension Cords

Three new extension cords were procured for the desk's ability to roll.  It needed two new 15ft, 15Amp cords for the battery back-up and auxiliary power and one new 8ft cord for The Robot, which is stationary, to plug into to the battery back-up that is mounted to the roller platform.  I also went out shopping for 4 extension USB cables, but they were $33 a piece for USB 2.0 at Best Buy.  I thought that price was a little steep, so I only one purchased one.

This is Treeman's Adventures and Volunteerism.  The computer systems are necessary equipment for the said volunteerism.  It's like a cook stove is a piece of hiking equipment.  The title sets the parameters for what is discussed.  Like the US Post Office, if it fits, it ships.

The Desk and The Robot

My desk is coming along.  I built the platform that the 5" caster wheels mounted to out of 2x4 studs.  That raises the desk surface 8in.  I mounted my new battery backup to one of the studs using three thick 24in zip ties.  It has breathing gills on the sides, so I had to mount it standing vertically. 

The laptop in on a swing arm at the end of the desk.  A separate surge protector was mounted on the other side of it on a strut.  The only power cord that I ran through the electrical channel today was to reach the laptop and it's accessories.  So far, the channels look like their going to work well.  But I'm in need of 3 new extension cords capable of handling high heat because of the new arrangement.

I drove to Micro Center today to get The Robot's 1,200 watt power supply replaced.  Turns out that I didn't get an extended warranty, so I had to purchase a new one :-(.  And then I got the extended warranty for 3 years.  I don't know why I didn't do that in the first place?

So, I threw the old one way in the parking lot garbage can.  I have a power supply tester and it never powered on when I used it.  When I got back, I mounted the new one, but the system still wouldn't turn on.  So, I'm still in the middle of troubleshooting as I write this.

Other other channel on the desk is for data cables.  They and the electric need to be separated as much as possible to prevent "cross talk" through the cable and cord shieldings.  This is when stray bolts of energy in a power cable slip through a cord's shielding, then enter a data cable's shielding and disrupt communications because they use electricity, too, just lesser amounts.

The Robot is a "media center" computer.  It's built for movies and television shows.  But it's big and fast enough that it could be it's own server.  These days, I watch the same 700 episodes of television that I have been for the last 14 years.  What The Robot really is a glorified trail mapping machine.  And that needs a lot of power, too, considering what I do.

I'm an amateur GPS cartographer.  I've tracked out the 6,800 mile American Discovery Trail, merged together the 1,444mi Buckeye Trail and I have 4 of 7 states on the North Country Trail merged with Michigan in progress.  In order to do these, I had to display tracks for the Triple Crown  and the Great Western Trail (one trail at a time).

Since I have this data, I can make placemarks/ waypoints for items like Post Offices, libraries, hotels, motels, bed & breakfasts, hostels, campsites, campgrounds and grocers just to name a few.  You need tracks in order to have a basis on where to search for these things.  I've got mile markers for the Buckeye, American Discovery's tracks are already set up to get them and North Country's are already provided by the NCTA.  Overlaying park maps was resource (computer) intensive.  I have a full library. for the Buckeye and American Discovery.

I'm getting The Robot repaired to do some mapping this winter.  But I've got to get it repaired to channel the data cables on the desk and in the correct order.  It has 21 USB ports with 1.1's in the front, mostly 3.0's and two 3.1's.  I like to prioritize them by device.  For instance, keyboards and mice don't need 3.1's.

DVI Y Cable

The Robot is a large computer that I use for distance trail mapping.  As it is a piece of equipment that I use in volunteerism, it's a part of this log.

I have three monitor computer system.  I have a VGA one as a document monitor, the other two are on a DVI "Y" cable.  If I plug in one of the monitors with the other one on, I'll get lines in the one that's already powered on.  To get rid of them, I just have to power the second DVI monitor on, and then maybe off for the lines to go away.

Log 2017010101

I'm impressed with how The Robot processed it's system maintenance today.  It was rather expedient. But I was surprised with how fragmented two of it's hard disk drives were. The laptop is still chugging along, but in comparison, it always has.  It has a cheap AMD dual core processor.  The best thing I can say about it is that it has 8GB of memory.

The laptop's purpose is to serve as a second screen at Home Port, otherwise, it just has a reduced role on the road.  It's performed admirably.  I don't even like AMD's.  The only reason why I bought it was because it was on sale at Walmart on Black Friday 2012 and my previous unit was having problems with it's power button.

The Robot is still running without the manufacturer's drivers for it's motherboard and graphics cards.  But considering the problems that I had with the previous installation of the operating system, for now, I'm willing to "let sleeping dogs lie."

My prior lower back injury took years to heal.  Now, it just needs to heal.  Pretty much, my doctors are just telling me to use a machine to work it out.  But I might as well hike.  On some lengthy routes, it should strengthen it?  But I have a smaller living space and things here at home port are still kind of cluttered.  My queen size box frame and mattress is lifted about 36" off the floor with my custom bed frame.  Most of my gear is in the storage area underneath.  I'm "fighting" to get it cleared right now.

I have doubts that the clutch is going to make it much more in my 2008 Chevy HHR LS.  And I know that the wheel barrings in the front and the brake shoes in the back are about to go.  It might be time for rear drums, too?  They were squeaking quite a bit recently.  The car has about 178,000 miles on it now.

Log 2017010201

This is The Robot's new dual monitor setup displaying the guide and map for the Ohio Transit Hiker's Resource (OTHR).  I'm pretty proud of it.  I purchased two used monitors for $40 and couldn't pass that up.  But the dual swing arms and mount... now that ran about $125 at Micro Center.

With the North Country Trail, I would have been able to read the chapter websites on one monitor while plotting waypoints for the end of their spans on the other.  But since that's already done, there still might be use for the document monitor?  It could be used to write a track for the American Discovery Trail   And that track can be used to determine if it has any thru hike deficiencies and create the most through file on public libraries, laundromats, post offices, campsites, campgrounds, hotels, motels, bed & breakfasts and hostels within 2 - 4 miles of the trail.

Log 2016122701

To the left of the keyboard is my new Razer Tartarus Chroma, a 25 re-mapable keypad.  It's installed in The Robot, but I haven't re-maped any of them to simplify Google Earth's keystrokes yet.  That will have to wait for another day.

Log 2016122601

I reinstalled the operating system on The Robot and some of it's applications.  This time, I went a little slower.  Last time, I multi-tasked and tried to use more of the system's processing power.

I'm a little late, in getting some of my electrical gear out of the motorhome.  But so far, it looks as if nothing's damaged.

Log 2016122501

The Robot is a piece of equipment that I use in my distance hiking volunteerism. And this log's title establishes the parameters of what can be posted here.  But the logistics of that (such as the motorhome, or hiking gear) are also apart of this.

The Robot's operating system needs to be freshly re-installed.  Diagnostics on the Windows Update functions failed today.  That's alright because it really doesn't take too much time to do that and there really isn't very much in way of software installed on it anyways.  I don't think that Windows is going to wipe every hard disk drive, but just in case, I'll dismount the 4th one's data cable as the operating system is reinstalling.  It contains documents, movies, music, videos, etc...

With the hard disks data cables being attached to an expansion SATA RAID card, I could all four hard disks to function as one and I believe that's called an "array."  It distributes the load of the software evenly amongst the hard disks.  But that would entail wiping the 4th hard disk.  So lately, I've been performing a manual array.  That means that I've been keeping track of what's to be, or is installed in the system and assigning each one to strategic locations.  For instance, Google Earth, Picasa, and GPSBabel are installed on three separate hard disks.  In the even that all 3 applications are running, they won't be using the same hard disk at the same time.  Each disk can do one thing and run as optimally as possible.  Switching to a true array is a possible future upgrade.

With all that being said, I have most of the applications and where they go already written down.  So there's no need to stop, think and scratch my head over what I have to install next.  At this rate, I can multi - task their installations and get it done much faster.

I believe I ran into trouble when I changed a key in the registry when I was altering the location of the user files (such as documents and videos). There were other problems, too.  One was my expansion Wi-Fi card.  It stopped being recognized by the operating system and nothing that I tried to do could do to affect it.  That's just one that I could remember.

Log 2016122501

I got a 25 key reprogrammable, keypad today (from Santa).  I have systems maintenance scheduled for this week, so I'll probably connect it after that's done.  This is a gamers pad and I'm hoping to use it for Google Earth.  Ordinarily, to make a placemark, I have to use Ctrl + Shift + P.  But now I should be able to remap those strokes on the new pad so that I only have to press one key.  And since it's built for gamers, they always have their right hand on the mouse, so this is designed to be stationed left of my typical keyboard (which I think will work out).  The trick will be remapping the keys conveniently and memorizing them.  Anyways things here at the desk are so spread out that I might have to get a USB 2.0 extention to get it to plug into The Robot.

Log 2016122301

I just went to the doctors today.  It was a surprise to find that I lost 16lbs.  Officially, I'm wintering now and there's been a lot of snow here at Home Port over the past few weeks.  I don't remember having changed my diet much.  But 16lbs is good news considering that I plan to resume hiking soon.

The Robot is having issues installing updates.  But that's nothing new.  It's The Robot being The Robot.  I've got a system maintenance day scheduled for next week.

I've got an idea for somebody out there.  This could be an opportunity for somebody with a lot of free time who's not as mobile.  This is a "voluntarism from behind the desk" idea.  As distance hiking trails go, they often times don't have the manpower to spare.  But having a program on the trail might be a good thing.  On low manpower, if someone could like, friend or subscribe on social media or e-mail to every community organization, convention and visitors bureau, they could listen in for relevant events and forward them to a master trail community calendar that others can subscribe to.  It's a sign up for everything, stay at home and surf the web type of thing.

Another thing that this person might do is take over the agency's events page and convert it into a subscribable calendar as well.  Over time, he, or she could ask that other components of the agency and other outside organizations convert to a similar public and live calendar.  That way if the main calendar is subscribed to theirs and they update it, it will automatically update the main one with no further work needed of this new volunteer.

If this is done, the hiker, or prospective one could have access to information regarding an event they might like to attend, or one where they're already down trail and may be coming up on, or know what day to avoid something that's on, or near trail because they'd rather not get caught up in a crowd.

Log 2016121801

It's up.  But the interally mounted Wi-Fi expansion card isn't working.  It's showing up in the device manager as not being able to load it's driver. I have a USB Wi-Fi device around, so I just put in it The Robot.  Meanwhile, I changed some settings in the Binary Operating System recently, so maybe that had something to do with it.  Otherwise, the expansion card is supported by the current Windows operating system.

When I was in the Binary Operating System, I had the external video card working, so I disabled all of the redundant hardware.  They were things like video and sound card that had an external card inserted in the motherboard.  Before I did that, I have 16GB of memory (RAM) on-board now and the Control Panel was reading it as 15.9GB.  The redundant hardware was taking about 100MB of my RAM.  When I shut them off, I got all 16 available.

Google Earth is now maxed out on cache memory. And the back-up for my maps is ready to be loaded.  My documents and movies have been transferred over.  My media is being added to the library.

The monitor is connected to the video card with a VGA (analog) cable.  I might change that over to DVI (digital), but my monitor isn't all that great.  My TV connects to it via HDMI and I usually set it to clone so that both displays show the same picture.  I use this mostly watch Star Trek before I go to bed.  Other than that, I use it with Google Earth when I need to get out from behind the computer, get something to eat and look at the map on something bigger.

This is it, this motherboard ought to last another 8 years.  I can upgrade it's RAM and CPU once.  I'm thinking about getting a projector for trail presentations.  If I do, I have an 80 watt speaker and a 20 watt PA amp.  With the projector, all I'll need is a wireless microphone and a presenter and I'll be good to go.

Log 2016121701

The Robot is up and running using the motherboard's graphics unit. It's displaying an Intel Core i5 quad running 3.2GHz with 16GB of memory and 15.9GB of that is usable. I'm transferring my user files backup now.  I just got done installing drivers and in a bit, I'll be on to applications.

Once everything is in place, I'll insert it's expansion video card in and turn off all of the redundant components on the motherboard  (that saves on memory).